Walter and Mary Frome Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Walter and Mary Frome Family Foundation supports health, mental health, housing education and the arts in Southern California.
IP TAKE: The Walter and Mary Frome Family Foundation maintains and exceptionally low profile and does not accept unsolicited proposals. However, this may be a good source of funding for small- to medium-sized local organizations in SoCal, especially those working with youth or vulnerable populations. Networking with past grantees may present an opportunity.
PROFILE: Established in 2003, the Walter and Mary Frome Family Foundation was founded by late real estate mogul Walter A. Frome Jr., and his wife, Mary, who passed away in 2022. The family is behind Frome Investments, a real estate development and property management company in Southern California. The foundation is now steered by next generation family members, including Stan Frome. The foundation lacks transparency and does not maintain a website, which makes it difficult to locate further information on its priority areas and grantmaking strategies. According to tax filings, the Walter and Mary Frome Family Foundation primarily funds grantmaking related to human services, health, education and the arts. Grantmaking mainly serves organizations located in Southern California.
Grants for Public Health and Disease Research
Health and medicine figure prominently in the Frome Family Foundation’s giving, although the foundation does not articulate its priorities in these areas. The foundation has provided ongoing support to the Hoag Hospital Foundation of Newport Beach, California, including a donation of $1 million for improvements to its emergency department in the 2010s. Other health-related grants have supported the CHOC Children’s Hospital Foundation, Alzheimer’s Orange County, Kure It Cancer Research of Irvine, the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation of Irvine and Cure Duchenne, which works to research and improve the lives of pe0ple living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Grants for Mental Health and Housing
The Frome Family Foundation supports several organizations operating group homes for disabled, mentally ill, homeless and vulnerable people in Southern California. Grants have gone to Casa Teresa, which provides housing for pregnant women in crisis; Santa Ana’s Illumination Foundation, which provides an array of services to homeless people in Southern California; and Mercy House Living Centers, which runs shelters and other services for homeless people throughout Southern California. Other grantees working in these areas include Human Options of Irvine, Family Assistance Ministries of San Clemente and Costa Mesa’s New Directions for Women.
Grants for K-12 Education
This funder does not name goals for its K-12 giving but appears to prioritize out-of-school and after-school learning opportunities. Grantees include Think Together, which runs after school programs throughout the state of California, and the Save Our Youth Center of Costa Mesa, which provides tutoring and other out-of-school programs for local teens.
Grants for Arts and Culture and Arts Education.
Arts and culture grants mainly serve small- to medium-sized community arts and arts education organizations, often overlapping with the foundation’s interest in out-of-school learning. One grantee, the Wooden Floor for Youth Movement, aims to “inspire and transform the lives of young people through the power of dance and access to higher education.” Other grantees include Sierra Classic Theatre, the Easter Sierra Arts Alliance and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.
Important Grant Details
Frome’s grants mainly range from $1,000 to $50,000.
Grantmaking is almost exclusively limited to Southern California.
This tends to give to small- and medium-sized organizations with strong reputations in the communities they serve.
For additional information about past grantmaking, see the foundation’s past tax filings.
This funder does not accept unsolicited proposals and makes grants to preselected organizations.
Reach out to the Frome Family Foundation using the contact information provided below.
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CONTACT:
Walter and Mary Frome Family Foundation
151 Kalmus Dr., Ste. F-2
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714-641-1130
